David Leonhardt: Health Care Reform Complaints Expose Problems With Status Quo

New York Times:

Consider what it would be like to have a health insurance plan that capped annual benefits at $2,000. For any medical care costing more than that, you would have to pay out of pocket.

Examples of care that costs more than $2,000 -- and often a lot more -- include virtually any cancer treatment, any heart surgery, a year's worth of diabetes treatment and care for many broken bones. Even a single M.R.I. exam can cost more than $2,000. A typical hospital stay runs thousands of dollars more.

So does this insurance plan sound like part of the solution for the country's health care system -- or part of the problem?

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Rosspoling]

08:29 AM on 10/31/2010

I am now seeing the new healthcare reform and I think it sucks. Whom ever came up with this plan is one screw lose. My daughter works for a large health care provider and she just got her increse on health insurnace ans its now over 650.00 per month. She can not afford insunace now and is out of her reach. So now another joins uninsured and I still can not afford insurnace because of a W/C injury, insurnace wants over 1200.00 a month if they will under write .

[KaAp]

08:43 AM on 10/07/2010

It is disgusting that we did not even begin with single payer and then move to the public option what we have got right now certainly seems like the worst of all possibilities ... UGH

[CynAnne]

12:51 AM on 10/07/2010

Posted earlier (but deleted by a surly someone): For the few apparently still confused as to the connection between dental health and general health: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dental/DE00001 , http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100407/Research-shows-direct-link-between-dental-health-and-general-health.aspx and http://www.everydayhealth.com/dental-health/oral-conditions/oral-health-and-other-diseases.aspx ...because reading really IS fundamental.

[briarus42]

05:23 PM on 10/06/2010

We had a sorry "status quo" to begin with? I feel that I have never got ANYTHING for my premiums! I got snookered And thats a fact. The amount of medical care that I have got from the Double Cross,I mean The Blue Cross sorry over my whole life could have been paid for with one half a years premiums They did little or nothing for me when I forked over thousands to these legal scammers. Health insurance is little more than a racquet sanctioned by our government?

[oldpol2]

04:00 AM on 10/07/2010

I am still up for medicare for all!Done in reconcilliation

[Michmod]

03:02 PM on 10/06/2010

A great little video on Health Reform put together by the Kaiser Foundation, if anyone is interested in facts:

http://healthreform.kff.org/the-animation.aspx

[Hillbilly49]

02:49 PM on 10/06/2010

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/whatswrong/


Some 47 million U.S. residents have no health insurance, and the numbers keep growing. Because employers increasingly are moving in the direction of providing Wal-Mart-style health coverage by shifting health care costs to employees, America’s workers struggle to pay higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments—if they can afford such coverage at all.
Of the 47 million Americans without health insurance, 8.7 million are children.

[Hillbilly49]

02:48 PM on 10/06/2010

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/whatswrong/


Some 47 million U.S. residents have no health insurance, and the numbers keep growing. Because employers increasingly are moving in the direction of providing Wal-Mart-style health coverage by shifting health care costs to employees, America’s workers struggle to pay higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments—if they can afford such coverage at all.
Of the 47 million Americans without health insurance, 8.7 million are children.







.

[theMightyT v3]

01:47 PM on 10/06/2010

DT10 29 minutes ago (1:12 PM)
she pays more than that. her taxes are WAY higher than here.
700 a year is flat out BS.

===============

I pay roughly $500 a year, in taxes, for my health care coverage in Canada. So does my wife.

So for a family of 5, we pay approx. $1,000.

A year.

My now-almost-2-year-old nephew had surgery to connect his small and large intestine, a Kasia procedure (rebuilding the biliary tree in the liver), and had 2 liver transplants last year.

All covered under our "socialized" health care system.

His parents never saw a bill.

[theMightyT v3]

01:18 PM on 10/06/2010

Stewpendous on Oct 6, 2010 at 09:41:36
“Read up on some history and you will learn that when government subsidizes and market it drives up cost every where else!”

==================

Actually try reading the article again.

Which points out that Americans pay double for health care not because it's government subsidized, but because (for whatever reason) you don't seem to mind being sc.r.e.w.e.d by health insurance companies.

Countries that DO have subsidized health care pay far less with, in some cases, better results.

[bart4u]

01:09 PM on 10/06/2010

People live longer because of their diet. There are sure a lot of Americans that are fat.

[gramma61]

04:02 PM on 10/06/2010

That's because other countries provide preventive medicine in their programs.

[its miller time]

01:06 PM on 10/06/2010

The United States system is broken, you can have the best people in Health Care but if no one can afford it what good is it. Reform was neglected intentionally or attempted symbolically for years by previous Administrations. To think that Reform would not have unintended consequences is ridiculous, it's too big not to. When they do arise then they need to be readdressed. All or nothing gets you nothing, always has. You do not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Canadians traveling to US for procedures, it is a time factor, if you had a choice of waiting or getting it done tomorrow of course you would choose tomorrow. The Canadian system treats all Canadians, all, no one left behind. The Canadian system does not put peoples life's in jeopardy. If immediate care is required you get it.

The fact that there are people in Canada who are willing to pay out of pocket to get something done today is not a sign of a flawed system. There are all kinds of reasons why people from all countries go to other countries for treatment.

My Mother pays approx. $700 a year for Health Care in Canada. No limits on coverage. My mother just had a stroke a month ago and two weeks ago we transferred from the original hospital to a rehab hospital. Right now she is expected to stay there for 4 to 6 weeks. She will not be billed for anything.

[DT10]

01:11 PM on 10/06/2010

90% are covered.

how is that "no one"?

[Viper]

02:25 PM on 10/06/2010

Another myth... many s called covered have mcdonalds type ehelathcare plans and coverages limited to 100 per day.. not really insurance...

And of course trhere are those that have good insurance that gets dropped when they go to use it.. or reach annual or life time limits... or lose their job.. is that really being covered if that can happen?


Aetna last year dropped 600,000 people becuase thyewere not profitable enough...is that really being insured?
Regards

[DT10]

01:12 PM on 10/06/2010

she pays more than that. her taxes are WAY higher than here.

700 a year is flat out BS.

[theMightyT v3]

01:43 PM on 10/06/2010

nope.

Tax rates are pretty much comparable.

And what the poster outlined as a health care premium is perfectly accurate.

[its miller time]

01:52 PM on 10/06/2010

Fact Check, try it, it can be enlightening if you know how to do it right.

British Columbia, MSP premiums, monthly, single....

What the heck would you, of all people, know about Canadian Taxes let alone my mothers?

[fijisailor]

12:47 PM on 10/06/2010

After paying Blue Sh t $1500 a month for insurance I get monthly letters from them telling me all the things I am excluded from being covered for. Besides being way over priced they lack basic marketing skills. When you pay someone that much per month would you expect them to be telling you all the reasons they don't have to give you what you paid for?

[Carolab]

01:34 AM on 10/07/2010

That's why my husband and I dropped them.

[cabot]

12:46 PM on 10/06/2010

All of the for profit insurance companies should get out of the business.All they do is suck out profits from the system that go to under-worked and over-paid executives whose main function is to deny care to humans! Where are the Krocs and Buffet in all this, don't they own mega shares of McDonalds? where's their humanity? It is time for a national universal meicare alternative for all of those who want it! To hell with the for profit insurance companies and organizations, even the "non-profits", what a disgrace!

[DT10]

12:47 PM on 10/06/2010

what about all of the little kids who are fed from the money their mommies and daddies make working in the insurance industry?

[cabot]

12:56 PM on 10/06/2010

Never mind, once the executives are relieved of their duties, there'll be plenty of work for all these people to do.Subtract the vultures who suck profits out of the susytem whilst denying care and we'll have a better , more stable system for all involved!

[Viper]

02:27 PM on 10/06/2010

You mean white collar welfare... gee maybe they can go work in one of the New factories we have to build inorder to really turn the economy around and do something really valuable for a change! Besides they have shipped most of their jobs to countries with national helathcare...

regards

[Viper]

12:43 PM on 10/06/2010

REPUG Lie 9999999999

Medicare denies more claims than private insurance. Medicare does not even require pre approval of treatments and so denies no claims, no way to do so. OI operate cancer treatments centers and we do however we spend hours trying to get treatments approved for those with Private HMO Advantage medicare who pay 30% less than medicare and cost the government 15% more... and regular insurance whose employees are paid a bonus for not aproving and are often now in india....

The government does not process medicare claims.. generrally done by subs of Blue Cross for ever depending on state at LT 3%.

[DT10]

12:45 PM on 10/06/2010

Medicare is also insolvent.

[Viper]

02:30 PM on 10/06/2010

medicare is not insolvent, The repugs with unfunded medicare adavantage and the drug program did try to bankrupt it and america for the beneift nof insurance and drug companies..

Medicare spends about 13K per year covering the oldest and the sickest... Much lower than must peoples premium by the time they hit 50. A private insurance plan can cost well over 50K fopr an elderly couple.

regards

[vol1805]

01:39 PM on 10/06/2010

medicare do so require pre approval and denies many claims. get your head out of your rear orifice. yes i know, i am a health care provider with a successful office. go do some homework

[AustinG]

12:40 PM on 10/06/2010

The author's hypothetical is silly because that is the opposite of what insurance is supposed to be. Insurance is supposed to protect you from the rare, but costly event. We use it instead to pay for the day to day in health insurance which is why the day to day cost so much. Imagine a food insurance policy that allowed you to get whatever you wanted to eat if you bought it. People wouldn't be eating on the cheap that is for sure. We have created a system that foolishly makes cost unimportant for consumers. Well as a result costs are very high. Who could have seen that coming eh?

To fix the situation you need to have people manage the day to day costs of their own care. Where does the money come from? The money that we are foolishly sending to health insurance companies to pay those bills for us. They pay our bills and get a cut of the actions in addition to added costs for doctors offices, pharmacies, etc... in administration costs to make everything work. It isn't hard to see that having people keep their money and pay for those basic things would be more efficient. It would also lead to those provide incentives to companies to offer cheaper products. Consumers will spend more wisely when they are faced with the cost themself.

[DT10]

12:45 PM on 10/06/2010

sanity. finally!

[cabot]

12:49 PM on 10/06/2010

You are un-informed! All the other industrialized nations have longer lives and better medical outcomes than we do. Certainly , there needs to be cost control, and there are with co-pays and deductibles, but even these are prohibitive for most people. It is the "for profits" that are killing both the system and people!

[DT10]

12:51 PM on 10/06/2010

no they don't. cancer survival rate and innovation rate are better in the USA.

[AustinG]

12:58 PM on 10/06/2010

Life expectancy is longer in some countries, but that isn't really reflective of medical care. The obesity rate is MUCH higher in the US. The US has a 30% obesity rate. The second highest is Mexico with around 20% if memory serves. The nations with the highest life expectancy also have the lowest obesity rates. Japan for instance has a 3% rate.